Fran Ryan(1916–2000)

As an American character actress, Fran Ryan was a familiar face on stage, screen and television from her theatrical stage debut in the 1950s and continuing for nearly three decades. Ryan's similarity to actress Marjorie Main was soon noticed in the late 1960s, and she frequently played tough, mean-lipped, earthy and gruff-but-lovable female ... See full bio »

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Personal Details

Other Works:

Fran Ryan frequently played Ms. Goodbody on the 1970's children's program "The New Zoo Revue", which featured Doug Momary and Emily "Emmy Jo" Peden, along with Freddy the Frog, Henrietta Hippo, and Charlie the Owl

Did You Know?

Personal Quote:

For some reason, I always had a feeling that Howard would walk right out of those mountains - you always have hope. - Fran upon being notified that her second husbands plane wreckage had been found 15 years later.

Trivia:

Fran's first husband, Walter Kenneth Wayne (whom she married in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1949), died in a plane crash, in a plane he was piloting in January 1951 while Fran was pregnant with their first and only child. She would give birth to their son, Chris, in April 1951. Fran got remarried in January 1953 to Howard Schafer. Howard too would perish in a plane crash in Oregon in May 1953 in a plane... See more
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